Wild Food Profile: Milkweed + Fried Milkweed Pod Recipe

Monarch caterpillar enjoying a milkweed feast–they know the good stuff when they see it!

I love the summer months for foraging wild foods. One of my very favorite wild foods is Common Milkweed (asclepias syriaca). Around here, the pods are just beginning to form–and its a great time to explore this delightful wild food. They have a light vegetable taste, maybe something like a sugar snap pea–very tasty and delicious. In fact, this is one of the best wild foods, allowing you to have four different harvests from the plant at four different times during the spring, summer, and early fall.

Ethical Harvesting and Nurturing Practice

With the excitement of harvesting from common milkweed, however, comes a serious responsibility. New farming techniques over the last 20 years have eliminated many of the hedges that used to be full of milkweed. Because of this issue, the monarchs have been in serious…